It is always my intent to smile: to smile at a stranger passing by; to smile at anyone that I make eye contact with; to give unsolicited smiles. "A smile confuses an approaching frown" . When I smile I suddenly find my body relaxing and everything easily falling into place.
Smile. It is, or can be, such an easy thing to do and yet most of us so seldom use this powerful tool to deal with so many of the challenges that come to us regularly. A smile will release endorphins, natural, pain killers and serotonin - these make us feel good and therefore change our mood. Smiling also helps the immune systems to work better and it lowers the blood pressure. This is truly a natural drug. Smile and your face lifts making you look younger and feeling more successful as well as more positive.
I recall having a job where I trained telephone operators for an airline company. I gave each of the employees on the telephone a mirror and asked that they look in the mirror and put a smile on their face, just before answering the call. The intonation was different, the inflection of the words was affected. The smile could be felt over the telephone wires.
Go ahead try it! Smile and see if you can remain tense or feeling bad. I am quite certain that you will feel relaxed and your smile will be returned for it is very difficult to look at a smiling face and not return the smile. Change that frown, that scowl. Make it a smile and see how well your day turns out.
By Csilla Moffat
